Dear Misfits,
The Misfits at our meeting . . .
concluded that Charles Williams is an intense, imaginative, often baffling
author. He was a member of the Inklings, the group of creative Oxford Christians
of the 1930s and 1940s that included C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. Though
he excelled in many literary genres, Williams is best remembered for his poetry
and his original fiction. As regards his fiction, Descent in to
Hell is the second novel we have read; we read All Hallows Eve last
year (October, 2013) We conclude that Descent in to Hell is the
better novel.
As told in the novel, the "descent" in
the title happens to an ordinary (if extraordinarily selfish) historian named
Wentworth, whose daily choices to cheat on the truth slowly but surely lead him
into a terrifying state of isolation and egotism. Heaven, by contrast, is
increasingly inhabited by the novel's heroine, Pauline Anstruther, who learns
to face her fears and to love the truth exactly as it is. In the end,
Pauline finds salvation while Wentworth is destroyed psychologically and
physically.
Descent
into Hell is not an easy read. Although we recommend the novel, it
definitely needs to be read:
(1) Repetitively (more than once)
(2) Not rapidly. Read it slowly as it is not “popcorn
fiction”.
(3) With access to Google to
reference obscure facts and numerous historical characters.
Pax Christi,
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